Monday, January 24, 2011

The Elusive Poffertjes....

My intention to make my very own poffertjes is again delayed with another hurdle. As of now, I still have yet to find the buckwheat flour and not to mention the special pan. Actually the pan is not difficult to get and it is not expensive either. But I just have this weird habit of making my life difficult, so to speak. Two months back, I found this wonderful poffertjes pan made from cast iron. It is slightly different and much heavier (the normal one is very light) and needless to say more expensive. For someone who do not really like to cook, I find pleasures in looking & keeping odd items for the kitchen. I found this pan interesting, for one thing it looked old fashioned and traditional and I love old items. I didn't buy the pan... but I kept thinking about it. For one thing, a friend told me that readymix poffertjes flour is not so nice. When you make your own, it's somehow doesn't taste the same as the one you buy fresh from the local stall. So I hesitate....

Then I found the recipe !!! And it looked simple enough... and according to the lady it was superb !! The secret was to add buckwheat flour to the mixture !! She claimed that it was just a normal pancake if one is to use the normal flour. Now I'm getting really excited... all I have to do now is get the pan and search for buckwheat!!! Of course shopping in Holland can be very frustrating (according to the British) because of their rather limited products. In this case, it happens to be true. The supermarkets sell basically tarwebloem (tepung gandum) and zelfrijzend bak-meel (tepung naik sendiri), I have yet to find bread flour sold in supermarket, eventhough they do have the ready mix for bread, cakes etc. Haahh.... no wonder my homemade bread never really turns out right !!! But I'm sure I will find the elusive buckwheat flour somewhere, I just haven't found the correct shop :D

So last three weeks, while buying halal meat, I told DH that I wanted to buy the pan. Of course typical of him, he said I should just use acuan kuih cara. He was sure it would turn out the same. But I was insistent, and typical of me, I wanted the pan, not the lighter and cheaper one, but the heavier and more expensive pan !!! After buying the meat, I quickly dragged him to the shop. To my surprise, there were so many people in there. The shop was having a closing down sale !!! And it looked like it was having the sale for quite sometime already !! My heart quickened, the sale was good but the not so many stuff left was not a good sign...., I searched, searched and searched and I couldn't find it. A few days later, I went again, just in case I missed it the other day, still couldn't find it.

I had been drooling with the thoughts of eating my very own poffertjes ever since....

The elusive poffertjes..

Dissappointed and disheartened, I made this as a substitute.....

Kuih cara manis :D

This recipe I copied from Hana Memories :

100g flour (I used 150g)

200ml coconut milk (sederhana pekat)

1 table spoon of pandan juice (I don't use)

1 egg

A pinch of salt

A few drops of pandan colouring

-Mix everything and blend if you like. Sieve the mixture (if necessary)

-Pour into the mold, wait for short while and add sugar and cover the top.

Oh I do understand that feeling. When you want it, you just got to have it! Nothing can replace that!I guess you will have to wait a while till they get a new batch of stock! I am looking forward to seeing the hand made poffertjes!